


What Can Happen In A Second

by orphan_account



Series: 642 Things To Write About [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: A Study in Pink, Angst, Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 07:19:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2379680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In that split-second, John’s life turned around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Can Happen In A Second

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided to write a series of drabbles based on prompts from the book '642 Things To Write About'. Here is the first one! I hope you enjoy it.

A single gunshot was all it took.

It was a split-second decision, basic human instinct. Fight or flight? Fight. He would always fight.

John Watson had been lonely for so long. Even being in the army was strangely lonely; you would spend months on end seeing the same people, day in, day out, and forming what you thought were unbreakable bonds, until you all got home, and everyone else had families to get back to, to try and distract themselves for a precious few weeks. And then they’re all off again leaving you behind, and you’re lonelier than you were before.

Eventually, John had come to the conclusion that he was destined to be lonely for the rest of his life. Maybe he’d get a cat. Or two. Or three. And by that point, there was no turning back. Once you’ve got three cats, they just keep coming, and before you know it, you’ve got more cats than the RSPCA. Occasionally his mind would head down that route, and at first he’d try to deter it, before thinking to himself, hey! At least I’ll have cats.

It was funny how it took an equally lonely man to change all of that overnight. They didn’t have much in common; in fact, they barely shared any interests. They shared only three things; a thirst for adventure, a need for a companion, and an understanding of loneliness.

John knew, in that second, that he had to make a choice. He could go on living as he had before, by himself, in a poky flat, limping around London, forgetting that all of this had happened. Or, he could fire one more gunshot – the sounds that haunted him in his sleep – and turn his life around.

It was an obvious choice, really. So it was a good thing that his muscles agreed with his brain, and got there before his grey matter could even comprehend what was happening.

There would be other gunshots, of course, and other split-second decisions, but none as important as that one. It changed the course of history; John’s history, even if no one else’s. Loneliness was a thing of the past. Even though there couldn’t have been a flatmate less sociable, it didn’t matter. In that second, John’s life changed.

And it was funny, he thought, looking back, that since then, since that moment, the guns in his head had been silenced.


End file.
